Chair Sequence for Back Pain

So, you don't need to be able to get down and up off the floor to be able to get some relief in your low back. You can sit right down in a chair. So find a hard firm chair, not a swivelly squishy office chair or couch. Come towards the front of it. Bring your heels right underneath your knees.

Let your toes spread a little bit. Bring your hands up on top of the knees. Inhale and as you exhale curl your sit bones under and let your back round. And as you inhale, roll the pelvis forward, let your heart lift, let your shoulders roll back and down, nice. Okay, exhale, get round, curl.

Inhale, roll the pelvis forward, letting your heart lift. Let's do about three more of those. Exhale, hold onto your legs as you draw your sit bones under so that you can stretch your back. And as you inhale, roll your pelvis forward, draw your heart up, nice. Two more.

Exhale, get round. Inhale, roll the pelvis forward, draw the heart up. Last one together. Rounding. Stretching.

Opening. Rolling the pelvis forward and drawing the heart open. Okay, as you exhale this next time, just relax back into what feels like neutral. Soften up though the jaw and a little kinder in the eyes. Just make sure that feels okay, okay.

To get into the hip a little bit, keep your left knee where it is, bring your right ankle up on top of your left thigh. Now, if this is asking too much, hold the right knee and draw it in a little closer to your chest. So for some of you, this is deep enough. Only as much as your hip will allow. Okay, you're gonna inhale here and as you exhale you're gonna let your right knee open.

And as you inhale you're gonna draw the right knee in. And as you exhale you're gonna let your right knee open, rolling your hip open. And as you inhale, you're gonna draw it in. Okay, let's do three more like that. Opening.

Drawing in. Opening. Drawing in. Nice, one more. Opening.

Drawing in. And then next time you open now, letting that hip open, use this right hand underneath here for support. And so for some of you as you roll your pelvis a little bit forward and you draw your heart up, this is flavorful enough and you're gonna stay right here. If it's appropriate for you to feel more stretch you're gonna start to lean in a little bit forward, soften the mouth, remember the breath we've been practicing. Inhaling down towards the root of you.

Exhale, softening, if it's appropriate to feel more you might lean in a little bit more. Again, you might keep this right hand as support for you knee. For those of you who are designed to be a little bit more externally rotated in your hip, you could increase the opportunity by letting this right elbow find its way on top of this right knee. But this is gonna be more than is necessary for most of you, okay. Most of you will keep holding onto this knee.

Okay, softer in the eye, softer in the jaw. If you're finding an opportunity of stretch in the right hip, last few beats go to where you feel the opportunity with your awareness. Beautiful, now to get out of there and inhale, you come on back up. Hold the right knee. Let the right foot release back down to the floor and pause.

Big deliberate inhale, exhale. Everything, soften down though the sit bones and assess, make sure that worked out okay. Okay, only as appropriate other side. Let the right ankle come up on top of that left thigh near the knee. Okay, little flex in the foot is usually helpful.

Hold onto the back of this right knee and as you inhale you're going to draw the knee in towards you and as you exhale you're letting the hip and knee move away. And as you inhale you're drawing the knee in towards you and as you exhale you're letting the hip and knee move away. Three more like this. Two more. One more.

Draw in that hip and knee in towards you. Letting the hip and knee move away. Now you're letting the hip and knee move away, which is an external rotation of the hip. You're letting your pelvis roll a little forward and you're letting your heart lift. So you're attempting to create some length here through the spine.

The more natural position would be to be letting the back round, which, for some of you, will just be where it's at. But we're putting an intention towards letting the front spine lengthen. Okay, now, for some of you this is enough. Okay, bring your awareness into where you're feeling it, deep into that left buttocks and hip region, stay right here if this is enough. For some of you, you're gonna start to lean in a little bit, softer in the mouth.

Breath into where you feel it. If it's useful to feel more, and what I mean by that is if you can maintain a kindness in the eyes and a softness in the jaw, then some of you might bring that left elbow on top of that left knee, right elbow on top of that right ankle. And then you just kind of sink in a little bit. Okay, for most of you that doesn't make sense, you're gonna keep holding that left knee. Okay, a couple more moments.

Nice, so beautiful. When you're ready to get out of there, let an inhale bring you back up. Hold onto the left knee. Let the left foot come back down to meet the floor. Big deliberate inhale, exhale,let it happen.

You might even feel good to inhale. Roll the pelvis forward, let the back arch and exhale round. Let an inhale bring you back to neutral, widen the feet a little bit. Little bit wider than your chair. Maybe, definitely wider than your hips.

Okay, now slide forward, let the elbows bend. So just kind of lean in a little bit and for some of you this is enough stretch, right here. Okay, some of you it's going to be appropriate to find the hands onto the legs. And you're gonna round over. Wobble a little, side to side.

This might be perfect. Some of you are gonna let your head drop a little bit. Nice, couple more moments. Breath like we've been practicing. Letting the inhale reach down.

Letting the exhale open. Super nice, okay, chin into the chest and slide the hands back up, let your back round all the way back up. Exhale, let's get a little bit of extension, hold onto the chair with your left hand. Let an inhale reach your right arm up. Now, press down a little bit through the left hand and wiggle this right arm a little bit up, like, let yourself roll a little bit forward and back, just really, like, reach.

Beautiful, inhale here, exhale, release your right hand back down to the right side of the chair. Hold on, inhale, circle this left arm up. Press down into the right side as you wiggle up through this left arm. Like feel, if you can wobble it a little bit from side to side, get some sense of extension. Beautiful, inhale here, exhale, let this left hand find its way back down to the edge of the chair.

We'll repeat, hold onto the edge of the chair with the left hand as you inhale your right arm up. Wiggle it a little bit, wobble it a little bit, like feel your ability start to breath into this right lung. Yeah, inhale here, exhale, let this right hand come back down. Hold onto the chair as you inhale you left arm up. Press into the chair with the right hand, wiggle up through this left arm.

Wobble it a little bit from side to side. Super nice, inhale here, exhale, left hand comes back down to the chair, now let's try both arms. Inhale, reach up through both arms. Soften the elbows a little bit and stretch up through one side and stretch up through the other, like, let yourself wobble a little side to side, roll your pelvis slightly forward, yes! Inhale here, exhale, release your hands all the way back down. Beautiful, okay, let's see how that worked out.

Let's make our way to standing. Plant your feet out in front of you. Lean forward onto your knees and then press down into your feet and come on up. Okay, feet about hip distance apart. Big deliberate inhale.

Exhale, it'll happen. Soften the knees. Soften the low belly. And like we've been practicing, feel the inhale reach all the way down, pelvis tips a little forward. Feel the exhale lengthen as your sit bones relax.

Just one or two more like this. Let your skull find an alignment where she feels more balanced. Okay, and only you can know if that was of any use. Only you can know if that helped. And if it helped, why not do it more often?